This invention relates generally to over-the-air management of a Mobile Station (MS) and in particular to a means for activating and managing a Mobile Station in a communication system.
A fast and efficient method for activating and managing a MS over the air would be beneficial both for the user and the wireless service provider. For the user, this means faster and easy activation of service and flexibility in choosing the desired carrier. For the service provider, this will enable a new level of customer care.
FIG. 1 is an illustration of a communications network 100. Mobile Station 110 comprises a dynamic agent 115 and is wirelessly coupled 120 to RAN 130. RAN is coupled to a WAP Gateway/Proxy 140 which is in turn coupled to a Mobile Management Server (MMS) 150. The MMS comprises among other things a database 160.
A method is provided for managing the MS over the air (OTA) and at the same time maintaining backward compatibility with existing protocols and standards. The proposed method uses Wireless Telephony application (WTA). A OTAM Server receives an indication from the Mobile Network of change in MS parameters. The OTAM Server sends a notification to the WTA Server along with the changed MS parameters. The WTA Server creates a new service content based on the input it received and pushes its URL to the WAP Gateway. The WAP Gateway sends a service indication to the client using (SI) Push or standard PUSH. This SI contains the URL. If user interaction is required a message is also sent. If user interaction is required, the user chooses to update the MS parameters. A WSP Get request is sent to the WAP Gateway using the URL provided in the service indication. The WAP Gateway makes a WSP/HTTP conversion. The WTA Server returns the contents created above. The WAP Gateway makes the HTTP/IWSP conversion. The contents are executed by the OTAM agent using MO Interface functions which update the handset parameters. The user-agent sends an acknowledgement back to the OTAM Server.